Ludvig Aberg May Not Be Human, Paul Azinger Will Be Missed In The Booth, Brooks Koepka Is Mad At LIV, Tiger Woods' Perfect Comeback Spot
And just like that, another PGA Tour season is in the books, and it's only fitting the future superstar of the sport, Ludvig Aberg, earned his maiden victory in the year's final official event.
More often than not we can look back on a sports season and say that it flew by, but given that professional golf has never been in more of a flux than it is today, 2023 was a slow burn of a year. It feels like Jon Rahm winning the green jacket in Augusta happened a decade ago. The news of the proposed merger between the Tour and Saudi PIF being announced back in June and the infinite number of still unanswered questions that have followed have made this season rather exhausting.
Speaking of being in flux, NBC's booth has a chair to fill heading into next season after electing not to renew Paul Azinger's contract. While many seem happy a new face and voice will be on the call moving forward, we may be looking at a grass is not always greener situation when it's all said and done.
Oh, that Tiger Woods guy is going to play golf later this month. It turns out my over-the-top speculation last week about his return at the Hero World Challenge had some juice behind it.
Plenty to dive into in this week's edition of Par Talk.
Tiger Woods Making His Return In The Bahamas Always Made The Most Sense
We haven't seen Tiger Woods hit a competitive golf shot since he withdrew from the Masters in April, but that streak will come to an end on November 30 when he plays in the Hero World Challenge. You could argue that the Hero - which Woods hosts - isn't exactly competitive given the field is made up of just 20 players, but the Official World Golf Ranking system awards points so that's good enough for us.
It's been no secret that Woods has been gearing up for something over the last few months. He's been spotted hitting a few shots here and there and caddying for his son Charlie for four days served as a solid test for his recently repaired ankle and the many other ailments he's carried over the years.
Tiger Woods will make his return at the Hero World Challenge, which makes all the sense in the world. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images)
The Hero World Challenge being in the hot and sticky climate of the Bahamas only helps Woods both get and stay loose throughout his round. Albany Golf Course is also incredibly flat, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem for Woods to navigate.
Maybe the most important piece of this is that Woods will be testing his game against some of the best players in the world. He's jumping directly into the fire being stoked by the likes of Viktor Hovland, Scottie Scheffler, Collin Morikawa, and others.
Doubting Tiger Woods is never a wise decision, but it'll be quite the accomplishment if he can finish in the top half of the leaderboard of the limited-field event.
Ludvig Aberg Was Unconscious Over The Weekend To Win The RSM Classic
Is shooting back-to-back 61s on the weekend to earn your first PGA Tour win by four shots any good, because that's what Ludvig Aberg somehow managed to accomplish on St. Simons Island.
His consecutive 9-under rounds on Saturday and Sunday shattered the PGA Tour record by two for the lowest Saturday-Sunday total. Not bad for a guy who was still playing college golf at Texas Tech earlier in the year.
The hype surrounding Aberg when he turned professional after the NCAA Championship earlier in the year was legitimately off the charts. The Swede has long been tabbed as the next great European player and believe it or not he's shattered expectations up to this point.
In 11 starts on the PGA Tour, he's picked up a win, three other Top 10, and eight Top 25 finishes. Shortly after turning pro he also finished T-4 in the DP World Tour's Czech Masters before winning the following week's event, the European Masters. Those two events served as a test for a European Ryder Cup captain's pick, which he passed with ease.
Aberg went to Rome and went 2-2-0 on the week to help lead the Euros to a dominant win.
So, all the 24-year-old has done since September is win a tournament on both of golf's biggest tours and hoist the Ryder Cup. Not too bad.
Someone Send Brooks Koepka A Schedule, Please
Brooks Koepka won the 2023 PGA Championship and this year's LIV Golf event in Jeddah earning well over $10 million this season. He also revealed his signing bonus with the Saudi-backed circuit was nine figures.
The man has zero to complain about but showed some frustration with his employer over the weekend as he's apparently trying to plan out his calendar for 2024.
On two separate occasions on social media, Koepka commented on posts from LIV Golf begging that the league send him the schedule for next season. On Saturday's post, Koepka replied to LIV’s easy-going direct message board asking people which player they’d most want to receive a direct message from. Koepka replied with “The Dm with the schedule for next year would be nice.” He then made a similar comment the next day.
Koepka and his wife Jena Sims recently welcomed a baby boy, so maybe they're really trying to lock in dates and destinations for the year. Sims is rather busy herself, and adding a baby to the mix requires some intense planning.
Paul Azinger Out At NBC Is A Blow To Golf Twitter
Sunday morning's news that Paul Azinger would no longer be NBC's lead golf analyst was surprising, but also not at the same time.
In today's world, anyone and everyone is given a farewell tour before stepping down and far more often than not news of a lead analyst in any sport leaving their post is leaked well before their final call.
Neither of those things happened for Azinger. His last call for NBC was the Ryder Cup in Italy, and nobody seemed to know that was going to be the case.
On the flip side of that, given the criticism he and the NBC broadcast as a whole have received over the last couple of years makes the move incredibly unsurprising.
Paul Azinger is done at NBC, so now what? (Photo by Tim Bradbury/Getty Images)
Azinger, who took over for Johnny Miller in 2019, was very much an analyst you either loved or hated and I'm of the opinion that's a good thing in a sport and telecast dynamic that can quickly become stale.
The former PGA Championship winner wasn't buttoned up and spoke more like a guy hanging out at your country club's bar than a lead analyst on NBC. Azinger was very much off the cuff, and with that came plenty of errors and gaffs, but that also made him a bit more human.
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You never knew what you were going to get from Azinger, apart from infinite references to pressure in big moments that everyone with eyes already knew it was a big moment, which made NBC's broadcast fun, at least on occasion.
Now that Azinger is gone it'll be interesting to see what Golf Twitter navigates to next for its go-to complaint. I'm confident we'll find something incredibly fast to moan about.
NBC Golf Coverage Has Many Issues
NBC's issue is running commercials every 90 seconds and hardly ever showing true live golf shots, not the 63-year-old guy in the booth making comments about said tape-delayed golf shots.
As for who replaces Azinger, I think that list needs to begin and end with Paul McGinley given that he checks so many boxes.
While he never won a major in his career - sometimes a caveat for a role like this - he's an incredibly accomplished Ryder Cup'er and brings some European style to the booth. The 56-year-old already works for NBC and Golf Channel at major championships and is a fantastic mix of traditional commentator who can also keep things in a lane even the most casual of golf fans can understand.
Follow Mark Harris on X @ItIsMarkHarris and email him at mark.harris@outkick.com